The judge orders to seize the luxury goods that the commission agents of the Madrid City Council bought

Luis Medina and a friend, in Sotogrande (Cádiz), in August. KMJ (GTRES)

The future of the assets of the two businessmen who received millionaire commissions for selling medical supplies to the Madrid City Council during the worst of the pandemic, Luis Medina and Alberto Luceño, is in the hands of Judge Adolfo Carretero.

As EL PAÍS reported, the head of the 47th Investigating Court in Madrid has not only admitted the complaint filed against them by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for crimes of fraud and money laundering, but was also studying seizing the luxury goods that both acquired with the money they obtained from that operation, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

An initiative that he has ordered to adopt this Friday, as confirmed by legal sources.

In its brief, the Prosecutor's Office raised this possibility with the judge with the aim of thus ensuring the recovery of public money allegedly swindled in the irregular sale carried out in March 2020. This Friday the green light was given to that initiative, according to the same sources.

In addition, as the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid advanced on Thursday, the magistrate has also approved questioning the two investigated businessmen, whom he has summoned on April 25, as well as "the necessary witnesses to clarify the facts".

More information

Keys to the 'mask ball': what link does Almeida's cousin have?

How did the commission agents get to the Madrid City Council?

Luis Medina, a regular in the pink press, belongs to a wealthy family: he is the youngest son of Naty Abascal and Rafael Medina —former Duke of Feria—.

Alberto Luceño is one of his friends.

According to Anti-Corruption, as soon as the covid-19 crisis broke out, when hundreds of people died and citizens were confined to their homes while health workers dealt with an unknown virus, both "acted in concert" to "obtain an exaggerated and unjustified economic benefit”, and thus deplete the public coffers.

The story of the public prosecutor's office is brutally forceful.

Medina and Luceño used a relative of the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, to contact the City Council of the capital, to which they offered "large consignments" of medical supplies made in China.

So, adds the Prosecutor's Office, the businessmen "artificially inflated" the cost with exaggerated commissions: 60% for masks;

71% for the tests;

and 81% for gloves.

And, with the almost six million that they put in their pockets, they acquired luxury goods.

The Anticorruption complaint includes a list of the products they purchased: among them, a dozen high-end cars —such as a Ferrari 812 Superfast for 355,000 euros;

a Lamborghini Huracán Evo Spyder for 299,999 euros;

or an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera for 293,000 euros—;

gold watches;

a yacht, which Medina baptized as

and registered in Gibraltar;

and a house in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) with three parking spaces valued at more than one million euros.

In August 2020, the first summer of the pandemic, Luceño also paid 60,000 euros for a week's stay at a hotel in Marbella (Málaga).

Alberto Luceño, in a video capture of a conference at the European School of Business Administration.

This scandal deepens the political crisis suffered by the mayor of the capital.

Not only because Anticorruption highlighted in its brief that one of his relatives —his cousin Carlos Martínez-Almeida— participated as a mediator in the operation of Medina and Luceño, but also because the alderman was already affected by the alleged espionage plot denounced by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and that she attributed to the environment of Pablo Casado, president of the PP until just a few days ago.

Almeida appeared on Thursday at a press conference after a Government Board of the Consistory and defended his management.

"The person who contacted my cousin was not me," said the alderman, who assured that he did not find out that his relative had acted as a mediator until the news was known last Friday.

“We only contract with this company;

we did not make payments to these people”, said the mayor, who added: “I had no idea that my cousin had intervened [...].

I have spoken with my cousin, but I am not going to say what I have spoken with him.

I find it outrageous what the money from Madrid has ended up with.

If the City Council has been scammed, we will exercise even the last actions.

Can anyone think that we would have any interest in charging more for masks?

Our sin was that the officials who went out on the streets were protected.

Judge Carretero has offered the City Council to appear in the case.

The PSOE, opposition party, has already announced that it will do so as a popular accusation.

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